Paying for stock and ads weeks before the platforms pay you

Written for online shops in the UK selling on their own site or on marketplaces: direct-to-consumer brands, private-label and FBA sellers, dropshippers and subscription sellers.

The short version

1. Build a 13-week cash flow, week by week.Start with your bank balance and the minimum you never want to go below. Stock payments and ad spend go in the week they leave.
2. Put payouts in the week they land.Each platform pays on its own timetable and can hold back reserves or delay payouts. Count only what actually arrives.
3. Turn any advance fee into a yearly cost.A flat fee repaid in a few months is far dearer than it sounds. Compare it with an overdraft or stock loan first.

In an online shop the cash goes out long before it comes back. You pay the supplier's deposit, then the balance, then freight and duty. The ad platforms charge you daily or at billing thresholds. Only then do the orders arrive, and the platforms pay you on their own timetable, less whatever they decide to hold. A profitable shop can still run short in the weeks before peak.

The 13-week cash flow

1. Start with the bank.Your opening balance, and the minimum balance you never want to go below.
2. Receipts by channel, on payout timing.Amazon pays disbursements about every 14 days, less its delivery-date reserve. Shopify Payments and PayPal pay on their own schedules. Put each receipt in the week it actually lands.
3. Stock purchase orders.The deposit and the balance, each on its own date, plus freight, duty and import VAT.
4. Ad spend.Charged daily or each time you hit a billing threshold, so it leaves before the sales it buys are paid out.
5. Everything else.3PL invoices, the VAT quarter, payroll and loan repayments. Then flag every week that dips below your minimum.

Peak and January

Black Friday falls on 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday on 30 November. Peak stock is paid for before those sales are paid out, and it costs more to hold: Amazon charges higher storage from October to December. Change-of-mind returns peak in the first weeks of January, so refunds on December sales come out of January's cash. If your VAT quarter ends on 31 December, the VAT on peak sales is due 1 month and 7 days later, on 7 February. As of Oct 2026.

What the platforms hold back

Stripe, PayPal, Shopify Payments and the marketplaces can hold a rolling reserve or delay payouts after a jump in refunds or disputes. Amazon's delivery-date policy holds funds until 7 days after the expected delivery date. If a marketplace suspends your account, disbursements are usually held while you appeal. Put every one of these holds in the forecast.

Chargebacks pull money back too. They are card scheme rules, not law, and the cardholder's window is commonly 120 days from the transaction or the expected delivery date under Visa and Mastercard rules, as of Oct 2026. Answer inside your acquirer's deadline with proof of delivery to the verified address, the listing as it stood, the terms the customer accepted and their messages. A payment authenticated with 3D Secure usually moves fraud chargeback liability to the card issuer.

Pricing an advance against your sales

Revenue-based finance gives you a lump sum for a fixed fee and takes repayments as a share of daily sales. The fee is not an interest rate, so it looks smaller than it is. Convert it to an annual cost before you sign, and compare it with an overdraft, stock and trade finance, or a loan under the British Business Bank's Growth Guarantee Scheme through an accredited lender.

A fixed fee repaid within a few months is expensive per year, because you only had the money for those few months.

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